Your guide to going off road

Meet the Mercedes-Benz E220d All Terrain; the car you’re least likely to buy if you have any intentions of driving off road. This is an estate version of the hugely popular E Class. It doesn’t look like an SUV at all, which means it’s automatically a deal breaker for anyone who wants an SUV to show off and lord it over other motorists. This one offers capability without pretense.

Like all luxury cars, this one too was first designed to be driven in normal conditions, like cities, highways, mountain roads and all the other places you would use any type of car. It has all the creature comforts you’d expect of a car that costs almost '75 lakh (ex-showroom) like a panoramic sunroof, three-zone climate control, Merc’s new COMMAND media interface, electric seats, et al. It’s packed to the rafters with safety kit as well that includes several airbags, ABS with EBD, Traction Control, ESP, automatic breaking and other systems to stop you from crashing. Under the bonnet, you’ll find Merc’s familiar 2.14 litre turbodiesel engine with direct injection that puts out 194bhp and 400Nm of torque. This is coupled with a 9-speed automatic gearbox that is cleverer than Albert Einstein and Stephen Fry combined.

The E Class estate is a really long car, make no mistake. But Mercedes seems to consider this length an inevitability and has engineered the steering, brakes, throttle response and various other aspects to compensate for it. We know this because we got stuck in the back streets of Mumbai that were not much wider than the car and full of pedestrians. It never felt ungainly.  

So far, none of this actually screams off-road monster. The only semi off-roader-ish feature is a driving mode called All Terrain. This activates the all-wheel-drive system. This got us thinking, ‘Why would Mercedes fit such a feature into an estate car?’ They’re not in the habit of lying.

After having scratched our heads for an hour or so, we reached our off-road test course outside Bombay. Our course has a long private beach which is the best place to kick-start your off-roading hobby.

What follows here is a series of tips, tricks and techniques for off-road driving that you can try even in an estate car that has all-wheel drive. Please do take permission from the local authorities first.

Driving Mode: All Terrain
Throttle Control:

Most SUVs have an automatic gearbox which means that a computer decides how much power to give you based on the position of your foot on the accelerator. This means your throttle inputs should be smooth and steady. Push the accelerator about 10-15 per cent and keep your foot there, and let it work out how much power to give you.

Steering:
Always hold the steering at a quarter to three position (left hand due west and right hand due east) with your thumbs outside the wheel. This ensures that you don’t injure your thumbs in case the wheel bucks and it gives you maximum control. When you steer, do so smoothly under acceleration or braking as this helps change direction better. You may feel the car writhe under you. When this happens, steer gently against the skid to correct.

Brakes
Your braking needs to be gentle or the car will dig itself into the sand and get stuck. It is imperative that you plan your braking and do so gently because panic braking tends to be abrupt and can unsettle the car.

Looking where you’re going:
This may sound simple enough but it helps to trace the route you want to take through the sand before you take it. Make sure there aren’t too many large obstacles in the way and follow the route at a steady pace. If you are going to deviate, repeat the process; trace another route.

Oh, no! I’ve got stuck:
You’ll get stuck on a beach if you spin the tyres and dig a hole under them. Mostly eversing the car out works. Turn your steering wheel enough so it comes in contact with the sand and gently ease yourself out. If that doesn’t work, find a rock, a water bottle or even a sheet of cardboard to wedge under the tyre and give it traction.

Don’t get cocky
Do not get overconfident after a few minutes of driving on sand. People tend to get stuck the fastest that way. Give yourself time to feel and understand how your car is behaving. Get to grips with what kinds of inputs are giving what results. The better you understand what your car is doing, the more confident you’ll be.